It’s hard to have metaphysical conversations in the technology game. Most of chat – even with techno-evangelists and social media utopians – is disappointingly mundane. But once-in-a-while, one comes across an exceptional individual who thinks so deeply about technology that he makes it seem profound, even other-worldly.
Officially, Jeff Jonas is the chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer. Less officially, he is a Las Vegas based ironman triathlete who is paid by IBM to think deep thoughts about data. If intelligent machines could talk, perhaps they would speak like Jonas – elliptically, enigmatically, but with a depth and wisdom that is all too rare in our always-on world of continuous updates and partial attention spans.
Video ahead. → Read More
We have shown you many super-realistic androids from Japan in the past. But Actroid-F, along with what appears to be her twin sister Geminoid-F, certainly take the cake as far as realism is concerned. Actroid-F made a public showing in Tokyo a few days ago, dressed as a nurse who could work in hospitals as an “observer”. → Read More
In a post this weekend, I wrote about how the cable tv industry was finally stepping towards the cliff. And we’d learn more today when Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, reported earnings. Well, the numbers are out, and it’s not a surprise.
275,000 Comcast subscribers cut the cord last quarter. Its subscriber count is down 3.5% from the same quarter last year. To be fair, some of that loss was offset by a gain in 219,000 digital cable subs. Revenue was up as customers bought higher priced bundles of tv, internet and phone service.
During the earnings call, Comcast blamed the drop on the lousy economy. Always a handy excuse. Sure, many people are struggling right now, and it makes sense that the high cost of cable is an expense they can no longer afford. Comcast said, based on exit interviews, only a ‘small number‘ seemed to cut the cord for over-the-air signals, and they are not planning to switch to internet tv alternatives. But …. → Read More
Back in April, we noted that Google was about to escalate the so-called “location wars” by reworking and rebranding their Locale Business Center as Google Places. They’ve since done a lot of work on improving the area (despite an on-again/off-again war with Yelp over results) and they’re clearly feeling good about it. How do I know? Because starting today, they’re going to add Place results to Google Search in a major way.
Place Search will now reside on Google.com when you’re doing a search that Google believes is attempting to discover a location. And it will also have a home in the left toolbar (you know, where “Images”, “Videos”, “Shopping”, etc reside) as “Places”, which a user can click on to just get location results. → Read More
The second author to reach 1 million Kindle books sold is…? Any guesses? Of course not; I gave it away in the headline. It’s James Patterson, author of such books as the Alex Cross series and Women’s Murder Club. That Morgan Freeman movie, Along Came a Spider, was based on an Alex Cross novel. → Read More
Today at a press event in San Francisco, Intel and a group of 70 companies announced an alliance to build a system of open standards for cloud computing. Part of the Cloud 2015 initiative, The Open Data Center Alliance makes it easier for customers to deploy cloud computing solutions, as it focuses on interoperability, flexibility and unifying industry standards. The Open Data Center Alliance will represent more than $50 billion in annual IT investment.
Intel, which powers 9 out 10 of the servers for cloud today, will be a technical advisor and non voting member in the alliance. The companies involved are cross-vertical including Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, BMW and JP Morgan Chase, joining together with Intel towards the ultimate endgoal of simplified virtual computing. While Google, Amazon Yahoo are missing from the list, Intel commented that membership is still open, “There’s a lot of people still in the pipeline. We’re adding people by the minute.” → Read More
Music streaming service Spotify has retained executive search firm Odgers Berndtson to assist them in finding chief operating officer as the number two executive after founder Daniel Ek. A number of candidates, particularly in Silicon Valley, have been contacted for the job.
Our first source on this story said that Spotify was actually looking for a new CEO to replace Ek. But Ek says this is inaccurate. “We’re looking for a COO to help run the company,” he said by phone this morning.
I also spoke with Ek about the story I wrote yesterday about acquisition attention from Google and Apple. Ek says Spotify has had absolutely no acquisition discussions with Apple at all, ever. “We don’t want to sell, we are here for the long term,” he said. → Read More
Today at a press event in San Francisco, Intel and a group of 70 companies announced an alliance to build a system of open standards for cloud computing. Part of the Cloud 2015 initiative, The Open Data Center Alliance makes it easier for customers to deploy cloud computing solutions, as it focuses on interoperability, flexibility and unifying industry standards. The Open Data Center Alliance will represent more than $50 billion in annual IT investment.
Intel, which powers 9 out 10 of the servers for cloud today, will be a technical advisor and non voting member in the alliance. The companies involved are cross-vertical including Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, BMW and JP Morgan Chase, joining together with Intel towards the ultimate endgoal of simplified virtual computing. While Google, Amazon Yahoo are missing from the list, Intel commented that membership is still open, “There’s a lot of people still in the pipeline. We’re adding people by the minute.” → Read More
LimeWire, we hardly knew ye. A New York court has ordered the company to turn off the software’s ability to search, upload, and download, which pretty much means that it’s dead. I guess this would have affected me greatly, I don’t know, in the year 2001, but now? Not so much. → Read More
If you need more proof that seed investing is taking over the world, just look up north to Canada. Three years ago, a group of angels started Montreal Startup, a $5 million seed fund. This week, they are launching their second, $45 million fund under a new name, Real Ventures. It will invest in startups across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver, but mostly within 250 kilometers of Montreal where most of the partners are based.
The partners include serial entrepreneur Austin Hill, John Stokes, and Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Daniel Drouet, Alan MacIntosh, and Mark MacLeod. The fund will invest in web, mobile, software, digital media, social and casual gaming startups. → Read More
Darth Vader’s armor and helmet, owned by an unnamed American collector, is on the auction block and is expected to sell for an estimated $250,000 in November. While it’s doesn’t come with the lightsaber it does include a small vial of absolute nerd cred that you can dose yourself with next time you roll through Comic Con. Think of how many kisses you’ll get at the next PAX nerd orgy. → Read More
The Chevy Volt is pretty much here. They’re everywhere here in the Detroit area. I must see one every other day. But they should start hitting dealers in the coming weeks and so, right on cue, the Volt’s TV ad spot appears.
This isn’t the first commercial for the Volt. Oh no, the Volt was shown off through numerous TV commercials since its announcement as more of a PR campaign for GM, rather than the Volt itself. Remember, the Volt was born during President Bush last term when everything was hitting the fan and it was clear GM was going to need some help. This new TV spot is the first to actually showcase the vehicle and its entire extended range philosophy. Anyway, click through for a bit of Chevy marketing goodness. → Read More
This is a quick one: The T-Mobile variant of the Galaxy Tab will hit on November 10th. Price? $400 on contract just like Sprint. There’s also a $35 activation fee and $200 ETF so that’s fun. → Read More
Given all the apparent excitement surrounding electric vehicles and the billions invested by automakers, financial firms and government incentives, you would assume there was a groundswell of consumer support for hybrid and battery electric cars underlying this momentum.
Unfortunately, according to a J.D. Power and Associates report released this morning, we may be on the electric car bandwagon but once you get us to the dealership, we look the other way.
The firm predicts that in 2020, international sales of hybrid and battery electric cars will total 5.2 million, or 7.3%, of the 70-plus million consumer vehicles expected to be sold. This year, the world is on track to sell 954,500 electric units, 2.2% of all car sales. Thus, in a decade, consumers will only move the needle about 5 percentage points, from 2.2 to 7.3. If the future of the car is electric, it’s not happening in the next decade and— given the sluggish growth curve— not the one after that either. → Read More
Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital, announced three new investments at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa today.
The three startups that have received fresh capital from the investment organization are UK/Lebanon based Nymgo (which delivers cheap VoIP telephony services), Jordan-based Jeeran (social networking site) and ShooFeeTV (which operates a Web-based entertainment guide). → Read More
What will it be? A bottle of nice whiskey or a 1TB external hard drive? What will it be? → Read More
Nikon Japan is planning [JP] to offer an online service that allows users to convert conventional 2D images into 3D in order to view them on a dedicated 3D photo frame. Starting December this year, the service will be open to Japanese members of “my Picturetown”, an online photo sharing and storage service run by Nikon (which already exists). → Read More
If you were browsing HP’s online catalog and quietly dreaming of a 3D-ified version of the HP Envy 17, it’s your lucky day. First, run out and buy a lottary ticket and then come right back here and peep the latest edition to HP’s Envy line: The Envy 17 3D. → Read More
Ever wonder what the inspiration was for the Facebook Friends icon, the one with the outline of two people side-by-side? Neither have I. But now that Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley put up this side-by-side comparison of images on his Tumblog, I will never be able to look at the outline of the woman friend’s bob haircut again without thinking of Darth Vader’s helmet.
It’s just a funny photoshopped juxtapostion with the caption, “I’m sure this is where the Facebook ‘Friends’ icon came from.” I don’t want to psychoanalyze Crowley too much on this. He simply reblogged something he found amusing from someone else’s Tumblog. (That is what you do on Tumblr. It’s like retweeting). But you have to wonder if he doesn’t feel a little bit like the Luke Skywalker friend. → Read More
Acer is locked and loaded for a total assault on the tablet market. The company’s CEO told the WSJ that it has a whole series of tablets ready for a NYC launch event on November 23rd. Said tablets are supposed to be sold between $299 and $699. And that’s where the fun facts stop. Mr. Gianfranco Lanci didn’t mention how many tablets were coming or when they would be available. Nope, just the announcement date and price made the report. → Read More
